Books & Literature

September '13

Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News

Auto Racing Comes of Age
Robert Dick
McFarland Publishingwww.sprintcarhof.com
$75.00
**** (Four stars)
At 312 hardcover pages, no, this isn't cheap. But this book is also one of the first we've ever seen, and certainly the first in recent years, to examine the social and technological cross-pollination that was taking place on both sides of the Atlantic during the first three decades of auto racing. In this case, that covers the era stretching from 1900 through 1925. The time span helps make this book the legitimate heir to a body of research associated with the likes of the late Griffith Borgeson.
If you've got a nodding acquaintance with early racing history, you know that an enduring debate exists over who first created what in terms of cylinder-head design, camshaft arrangements and the like. That's not likely to be resolved easily, because, as Dick points out, the great design protagonists knew of each other's work and paid close attention to what their competitors were accomplishing. To that end, the book includes a comprehensive appendix of technical data on 22 pioneering racing engines from Europe and America, with their configurations, valvetrain designs, internal dimensions and, where known, their designers' identities. You thus learn about Ernest Henry's extensive resume, and that the Maserati brothers deeply touched the Diatto engine.
This is an incredibly valuable, obsessively researched work of history.
Lost Truck Legends
By Robert Gabrick
Iconografixwww.enthusiastbooks.com
$34.95
**** (four stars)
This is not a comprehensive history on the scores of fallen truck manufacturers. Nor does it claim to be. Instead, the author, one of the most respected historians in the truck world, has focused in on some of the more significant departed makers from years past, telling their stories in photos and text across 146 softcover pages.
Fourteen such fallen flags are examined in all. The majority of them are largely unknown except to hardcore enthusiasts of commercial vehicles. But they're all important. Take, for instance, the Dart, a name that started as a bicycle manufacturer in Indiana before the firm relocated to Waterloo, Iowa, in 1907 and began to build trucks. A subsequent move to Kansas City saw it transition into building monstrous rigs for off-road use in quarrying, mining and oilfield work. That attracted the attention of Pacific Car and Foundry, which bought Dart and merged into another of its holdings, Kenworth. Trucks by KW-Dart ended up tackling the world's heaviest construction and engineering projects.
That's the kind of book this is. Enter its pages, and you will ride through the past of truck building, including names such as Gotfredson (close relationships with Ford and GMC in both the United States and Canada), Hug (a maker of brutish construction and military vehicles), and Linn, which entered a complex three-way alliance that also encompassed Republic and American La France. You will like this.

This article originally appeared in the September, 2013 issue of Hemmings Motor News.